WATERTOWN — Clad in green and white T-shirts, the Woodland boys sat in their locker room Monday night at Watertown High and listened as captains David Uhl, Steve Baeder and Tanner Kingsley defined three characteristics they needed to honor the victims of the tragedy in Newtown.

"Honor, courage and heart," said Woodland coach Tom Hunt, whose Hawks donned Sandy Hook Elementary School's colors as their warm-up shirts. "We wanted to make sure that if we wore those colors, we honored those children and teachers who died by playing with honor, courage and heart."

Not only did their effort pay a small yet proper tribute, but it also fueled the Hawks to a 60-48 upset victory over the Indians, the defending Naugatuck Valley League champions.

"We're like that in practice," said Woodland swingman Rahmi Rountree, who led the way with 19 points. "Everyone's on the ground for loose balls, everyone's hustling all the time. We have a desire to win always. That's our main goal."

The Hawks took control of the game with a 16-2 run in the second quarter to make it a 26-17 game. That streak started with a pair of 3-pointers by Uhl and ended when 5-foot-8 junior Shane Classey grabbed an offensive rebound and banged in a layup.

"Shane proved tonight that he was going to outwork anybody who came around and get to any loose ball," Hunt said of Classey, who often fulfilled the duties of the 6-foot-4 Kirk Chamenko after he was saddled with foul trouble.

Classey grabbed another offensive board off his own missed jumper early in the third, then dished to Rountree for a 12-footer that made it a 33-24 game.

"Shane does a really good job," Rountree said. "He knows he's undersized but he plays his heart out."

Classey's recipe for hanging with the big boys is simple.

"Box out," he said. "Just find a body and push them back as far as I can. If I can't get the rebound, hopefully Tanner will fly in to grab it."

Kingsley added 14 points while Uhl had 13. Woodland's lead reached a game-high 19 points late in the fourth when Kenny Koch hit a 3-pointer.

The Hawks cruised the rest of the way to an important early-season win.

"We can't make it too big but we can't overlook how hard we worked to get it, either," Hunt said. "We've talked about this since the beginning of the preseason, that we could set the tone for our season and slingshot us to what we need to do."

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